


You Know How I Feel

by MauveCat



Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29822322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MauveCat/pseuds/MauveCat
Summary: Diego has finally returned to Elyys'tel, and Varyyn isn't quite ready to share him with anyone else.
Relationships: Diego Soto/Varyyn (Endless Summer)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	You Know How I Feel

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place immediately after chapter 9 of "Meanwhile, The World Goes On."

Even though the golden morning light shone through the window and he could hear the city awakening around the Great Tree, Varyyn felt no desire to leave his bed – his bed, and his husband’s bed. _How wonderful it is to call it **our** bed now_, he thought – and start the day. He and Diego had been torn apart immediately after their marriage. Now that his beloved was in his arms once again after their months of separation, Varyyn was in no particular hurry to release him for even a moment. Tightening his embrace, he rested his chin on the top of Diego’s head. “And what does this device do?” he asked, not terribly interested in the answer. The longer he kept Diego talking, the longer they could stay cuddled together.

Diego didn’t look up from plugging his phone into a portable power bank. “It’ll keep my phone running for a little while longer. Grace said that she and Aleister dropped off a few solar panels when they were down here last week checking on the cell phone towers – according to her, Mauri seemed to understand how to hook the panels up. I don’t plan on being on my phone much for the next few days, though, so this should give me more than enough power until we get a power source up and running.” He put his phone down and leaned back against Varyyn’s chest as he continued rummaging through one of the duffel bags sitting on the bed. “We should probably think about getting out of bed pretty soon so we can wash up before we head downstairs for breakfast. We’re both kind of... well, sticky,” he said with a laugh. “And after our disappearing act last night, I think we have to expect a little teasing. I know Jake will probably have a few things to say. Oh, who am I kidding… he’s gonna have a _lot_ to say.”

“I do not care what Jake – or anyone else – will say.” Varyyn pulled Diego a little closer. “We are finally together and as far as I am concerned, we should stay in this bed for the rest of our lives.”

“ _Definitely_ not the worst idea I ever heard.” Diego turned his head to press his lips against Varyyn’s throat. “But what about breakfast?”

Varyyn shrugged. “I am the elyyshar, you know. I could have breakfast sent up to us. For that matter, I can simply command that _all_ our meals are brought to us here, for as long as we wish.”

Laughing, Diego turned a little so he could look up from the circle of Varyyn’s arms. “Okay, so we’ve got mealtimes figured out. What are we going to do if someone wants you to... I don’t know, settle a dispute? Are you going to make everyone come all the way up to our bedroom for all of their official business?”

_Our bedroom._ “Perhaps not, but....” Varyyn thought for a moment before he nodded at the window. “We will have that window made larger and build a new elevator right outside. When we need to leave our room, we will simply have our bed moved to the elevator and taken to the ground below, where I will perform my duties as elyyshar. Once I am finished, our bed will be lifted up here once again.”

“Uh-huh. Sounds good. I’m sure no one will think that’s even a little bit weird. But what are we going to do when I feel like seeing more of the island?” Diego asked with a smile. “Kind of hard to do that from our bed.”

Waving a careless hand in the air, Varyyn replied, “That is easy. We will put wheels on the bed, and... well, perhaps my warriors would not want to push us all over the island. So we will simply make long poles to propel ourselves along, as if we were using oars in a boat. I do not see a single flaw in this plan.”

“Looks like I married a problem-solver. I still think we could both use a bath, though. Are we going to have our entire bed dunked in a tub? I mean, we _could_ just slide the bed right into that hot spring you were talking about, but....”

Varyyn sighed. “There is a single flaw in my plan.”

“I guess you’re allowed to have one flaw, sweetheart.” Diego went back to pulling things out of his bag. “That’s okay. I still love you even though you’re only mostly perfect.”

“I am glad.” Varyyn ran his hand through the short hair at the nape of Diego’s neck. “If you did not still love me, it would make things awkward between us. And is this truly all that you brought with you?” Varyyn asked curiously as he looked at the two piles of clothes sitting on the bed.

“Yeah.” Diego looked from the two bags on the bed to three slightly larger pieces of luggage sitting by the door. “I’m a little surprised too. I have clothes and some toiletries – that means things to wash and shave with – and my laptop and tablet in these bags here. The others mostly have some DVDs and books, and I brought a bunch of pens and blank notebooks... and that’s it.” He smiled to himself. “When I was deciding what to pack... well, I realized that a lot of the things that I thought were important really weren’t. And if I _do_ think of something that I want, or if I run out of something that I need, Jake told me to give him a list. It sounds like he’ll be flying back and forth fairly often.”

“Yes, that is true. Aleister said that he will return soon as well. Now that he and Estela have rid the island of their father’s buildings, he said that they are taking steps to ensure that no outsiders come to our shores again.”

Diego laid a third stack of folded clothes on the end of the bed before dropping the empty bag on the floor. “I’m still kinda surprised that he was able to get started on that so fast. I guess money really does talk.” He looked up just in time to catch Varyyn’s puzzled expression. “That means he’s wealthy enough to have influence that ordinary people don’t have.” He hesitated. “And... when they were here, did Aleister and Grace tell you that all of the others are probably coming back for a visit in June?”

“He did – and I think it is an excellent idea. The Catalysts will always be welcome among us, whether they come one at a time or all together. I would very much enjoy spending time in their company without the Hydra and the threat of Raan’losti snapping at our necks. Even if that were not true, I know that you will want to spend time with them.”

Relaxing a bit, Diego reached for the second duffel bag. “Good. I didn’t think you’d object, but I wanted to make sure. I talked to Grace a few days ago, and... well, everyone wants to make sure that the Vaanti don’t think that we’re trying to act like we have a claim on La Huerta. It’s just that we all went through a lot here. We found each other, but... we lost Taylor. Raj said that we should have a memorial for her, and everyone agrees that this is the best place – the only place, really – that we can have it.”

Varyyn kissed the side of Diego’s head. “I agree. And... is Estela coming as well?” he asked carefully.

“Yeah,” Diego sighed. “I hope so, at least. I haven’t really been able to talk to her as much as I’d like. I... kind of think I’m the last person she wants to be around right now,” he finished unhappily as he poked around in the duffel bag.

“She is grieving, my love,” Varyyn said gently. “Her wife is gone, and you... I do not know how to say this.” He frowned and thought for a moment. “You and Estela... in very different ways, you both touched a part of Taylor’s soul, and you both kept a piece of her when she departed, more than any of your friends. I think in time, Estela will be ready to place her memories next to yours. But for now, all that she has is what she once had. Her heart has not yet healed enough to let anyone near her memories of Taylor, not even Taylor’s best friend.” He let out a long breath. “While you and I were parted, I felt a shadow of what Estela feels now. I knew that you lived, even if you did not live by my side, and I believed that you would return to my side one day, even if I did not know when that day would come. As little as it seemed at the time, it was so much more than Estela has. She only has the past, while I had hope for the future.”

“I know.” Abandoning his unpacking, Diego shifted around so his head was resting on Varyyn’s shoulder. “Hopeful or not, I hated that I couldn’t talk to you. The one time we tried was a complete disaster, remember?” Varyyn nodded, grimacing at the memory; on her last visit, Grace had called Diego so he and Varyyn could use her phone to speak to each other… but it didn’t take long for both men to be crying too hard to get any words out. “And that was when I decided that I wasn’t going to make either of us wait any longer. It’s not like I was good for much of anything back in Riverside. I couldn’t concentrate and I kept wondering what you’d have to say about television or supermarkets, or California weather, or – or anything. Everything, really.”

Varyyn laughed softly. “I understand. I was unhappy as well. It is fortunate that you returned to me when you did, because I think my people were losing their sympathy for me. My thoughts wandered all the time and everyone had to repeat their words five times before I answered them. Mauri and Paravet followed me and watched me every day because they thought I did not eat enough. Seraxa even told me that she was tired of looking at my sad face, and she was going to seal me up in a cave until you returned so she would not have to look at me.”

Diego snorted in amusement. “I thought the war chief was supposed to respect the elyyshar.”

“Oh, she does. She is very proper when others are nearby. But when we are alone... well, she knew me when I had barely learned which end of a spear to hold. I am afraid that when she looks at me, she sees a slightly taller version of her son.”

“Good. She can help me keep you humble.” Stretching up, Diego kissed the underside of Varyyn’s chin. “It’s pretty clear that dropping hints isn’t working, so I’ll just say it: I am _starving._ Let’s get cleaned up and dressed so we can face the music.”

“There will not be music before tonight, so we will have some time,” Varyyn replied as Diego reached for some clothes. “You should wear that red and yellow thing today. I like the colors.”

“Hmm? Oh, those are trunks, so I’ll save those for when we go swimming,” Diego said absently as he unfolded a shirt and looked at it. “How about this one? It’s got red in it.”

Varyyn looked down at his husband, confused. “You have clothes just for swimming? When my people were watching the Catalysts before we met, we noticed that you all wore clothes when you swam but I never realized that you had outfits just for that purpose.”

“Well... yeah.” Diego shrugged, clearly a little embarrassed. “I know that the Vaanti swim naked, but I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable doing that.”

“So you are saying that... I am the only person who will ever see your entire body?” Varyyn asked slowly.

“Yep. Except for a doctor... huh. I guess I’ll need to make some kind of arrangement with Jake so he can fly me back and forth for checkups. Costa Rica is close and Jake knows the country pretty well, so I’ll see if I can find a doctor there that I like. San Trobida is a little closer, but I don’t want Estela thinking that I’m trying to push her into talking to me.... Anyway, yeah, I’ll be keeping my clothes on – outside of this room, at least. I hope it doesn’t bother you....” Diego trailed off as Varyyn shifted a little uncomfortably, and he looked up at his husband with a slow smile. “Huh. It _doesn’t_ bother you, I guess.”

“It... does not,” Varyyn replied with a blush as Diego’s hand brushed against him. “I do not understand why, but knowing that I am the only person who will ever see all of this....” He ran a hand from Diego’s chest to his hip. “I... like knowing this.”

Tossing the shirt that he was holding to the foot of the bed, Diego wrapped his arms around Varyyn’s neck. “You know what? I think breakfast can wait just a little bit longer.”

_Birds flying high, you know how I feel_

_Sun in the sky, you know how I feel_

_Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel_

_It’s a new dawn_

_It’s a new day_

_It’s a new life for me_

_And I’m feeling good._

_Feeling Good, Nina Simone_


End file.
